1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for holding a live fish bucket, such as a minnow bait bucket, and more particularly to apparatus for swingably mounting a bait bucket for movement alongside a boat between a lowered position in which a bait bucket mounted thereon is received in the water and a stowed, out of the water position, adjacent the gunwale of the boat.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objects
One form of fishing, particularly that of fishing perch in the Great Lakes, utilizes a minnow which is preferably kept alive until the minnow is impaled on a fishing hook. Toward this end, various types of minnow buckets have been provided heretofore with aerators, double walled buckets, and buckets with holes which are coupled to a rope and dropped over-board to be received in the water that is being fished.
When the buckets are retracted from the water to allow the fisherman to extract a minnow from the bucket, the bucket will frequently strike the side of the boat and water, in the minnow pail, will frequently splash inside the boat and the fisherman therein.
Devices have been provided heretofore for holding an immersible minnow receptacle outboard of a boat in such manner as to prevent contact of the minnow bucket and the side of the boat such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,990,642 issued to George E. Bloom on Jul. 4, 1961. This construction does not allow the minnow bucket to be easily moved in a generally vertical plane from a lowered position alongside the boat to a raised position alongside the boat while keeping the minnow bucket away from the side wall of the boat. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and novel apparatus for swingably mounting a live fish bucket on a fishing boat.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for mounting a live fish bucket on a boat for vertical movement between a lowered position in which the bucket is received in the water alongside the boat and a vertically raised position in which the bait bucket is adjacent the gunwale for easy access to the minnows inside the bucket.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide apparatus for mounting a live bait bucket on a boat for movement between vertically spaced positions alongside the boat but sufficiently laterally spaced from the boat side wall to preclude the bucket from hitting the side wall as it is moved between the vertically spaced positions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide apparatus for holding a bait bucket in the water away from the boat while providing quick and easy access to a fisherman in the boat to a bait bucket when it is moved out of the water.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus of the type described including apparatus for detachably locking the bait bucket tender in a stowed position adjacent the gunwale of the boat.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a sturdy bait bucket tender of the type described which can be easily assembled and disassembled for storage and shipment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a bait bucket tender of the type described including new and novel structure for securing the bait bucket to the tender and for detachably holding the tender in a raised, out of water position.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art as the description thereof proceeds.